Internet Strategy for Tourism and Travel Industry

Archive for the 'Good examples of Internet possibilities in Travel &' Category

… so he could write about your destination on his blog. That’s the kind of idea I like.

I’m not the only one I guess because Hjörtur Smárason offered a A Great Opportunity for Travel Bloggers : A four day sea voyage exploring the untouched nature of the Breidafjordur bay, Iceland. Love it.

Just a quick post to let you know that I’m glad so many people continued (and still share) the T-List. I’ve discovered a lot of blogs with it and I think it creates a little buzz around the tourism-travel-hospitality blogosphere. ; ) I will have to practice my Spanish and German because it looks like some interesting blogs are written in those languages.

Your flight info on your cellphone via SMS (Short Message Service)… it is now possible at YUL. Many airports already offer this service but Montreal-Trudeau becomes the first canadian aiport to provide this service.

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In the press release, you’ll read: An FAQ (frequently asked questions) section and a demonstration of this practical new service are available on the ADM website by clicking “Passenger Services/New Airport Services.”

Why didn’t they link it instead of explaining how to get there!? This is not that important but… ; )

As most of the travel & tourism industry, you probably deal with many languages each day.

Depending on many factors (targets, budget, geographical situation, etc.), you will probably want to translate your website in 2, 3 or more languages.

The translation of each page should be accessible directly.
Take this page about the Cabot Trail (which you should see once in your life!) of the Nova Scotia tourism official web site. If you click on “FranÃ§ais”, you will be redirected to the French homepage. Ok now, try to find the French translation of the Cabot Trail… Not that easy. On the Internet, you should always try to provide the good info to the visitor at the right time. In this case, we should be redirected to the translated page of the Cabot Trail. If a French visitor wants to get to the homepage, it’s easy for him. The opposite (from the homepage to the Cabot Trail page) isn’t that easy.

You really should remember that if the visitor gets to a specific page, it’s probably because he searched for it so the translated version should be accessible easily.

Better less than nothing
I often say that less is better than nothing. Well, it’s also good when it’s time to translate your website. If you do not have the budget to translate all your website and to keep it up-to-date, you should consider creating a micro-site which would be a summary-like website that should contain the most requested information of your primary website as long as the language related information (Good example - the right column)

The last couple of weeks I’ve been traveling in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It was our first visit in those canadian maritime provinces for my girlfriend and I. Usually, we plan all or at least a part of our trip before leaving home. This time, we decided to take the car (even if gas price is pretty high!) and drive. A real road trip.

12 days of B&B, motels, restaurant, museum, attractions, outdoor activities, tours… and a lot of ideas for this blog.

First of all, here is some of the reflexions I’ve had during my vacations.

1. Travelling without taking the time to reserve or to get info about B&B’s / hotels / motels in advance will grow your expenses.
2. “Visitors Information Centres” have a lot of pamphlets and staff members try to help you as much as there are able to.
3. Signs on the side of the road do a pretty good job.

Yeah… we went on a road trip without a lot of preparation. No booking on the Internet, no printed map, no info sheets, nada! Even if I think that Internet is a good way to get info about your destination, it doesn’t mean that every tourist use that source of info. Sure, this tourism blog is the space I’ve created to write about technology and Internet in a domain that I like which is tourism and travel but I want to be sure to remind everyone that Internet is one of many ways to reach tourists and travelers. It’s growing fast and its importance will grow fast in the next weeks/months/years but it will continue to be one of the many ways. It’s up to you to decide which proportion each ways should take in your marketing strategy depending on the reality of your business.

Update : Here is an interesting French article http://www.veilletourisme.ca/fr/titre_resume_article.aspx?sortcode=1.5.13&id_article=560 giving some statistics

Today, I’ve discovered Tourist Tracks. Tim and Warren write and record audio guided tours of some cities of England and sell them on the Internet. Once you’ve bought a tour, you can download it and transfer it on your iPod (or any other mp3 portable reader) format and print out the map. Quick and simple. I like that idea. I’m not quite sure of the concept of selling it, but there is obviously something to do there.

When you choose “FranÃ§ais” on the homepage of Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism website, you get on the French welcome page. But hey, all the navigation is in English! Come on, translate it! It is the easiest part once all your texts are translated, the translation is a walk in the park. By the way, did you know that you should also translate the web addresses (URL) to optimize your website for search engines.

Also found on Zirma’s blog, A Luxury Travel Blog is one of the few blogs about luxurious hotels, finest restaurants and high-end services. It looks like it’s doing good and that range of customers is also looking for travel information on the Internet.